Users of space weather forecasts and
warnings issued by NOAA’s Space Environment Center in Boulder
can expect longer lead times and greater accuracy in anticipating
solar storms and their impacts on Earth if recommendations from a
new federal review of the National Space Weather Program are implemented.
Space weather forecasts and warnings are issued by NOAA’s Space
Environment Center in Boulder, Co.

The Office of the Federal Coordinator
of Meteorological Services and Supporting Research sponsored the recently
published review of the National Space Weather Program, which was
conducted by an outside team of space weather experts. According to
the independent review, the National Space Weather Program must be
updated, strengthened and better funded to meet even minimal requirements
for protecting the U.S. economy, government and national security
from solar disturbances in Earth’s space environment.

NOAA is one of National Space Weather
Program’s seven member agencies and the lead for coordinating
space weather operations and services worldwide. NOAA’s Space
Environment Center dffdqmonitors and predicts solar activity and impacts
within Earth’s space environment. It also issues official space
weather forecasts, warnings, alerts and data for civilian users. The
SEC works closely with NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center,
also located in Boulder and is one of the world’s primary resources
for solar-terrestrial data.

“As
our basic commercial infrastructure becomes more reliant on electronic
equipment, wireless communications and satellite services, our national
economy is more vulnerable to space weather,” said retired Navy
Vice Adm. Conrad Lautenbacher,
Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA
administrator. “NOAA’s Space Environment Center is the
first line of defense against damage to critical equipment. We have
been given a clear road map by the National Space Weather Program
Assessment Committee for how to move the program into the next stages
of preparedness.”

The panel drew up a total of 23 recommendations
for improvements. Among them were using cost-effective micro-satellites
to provide long-term, continuous observations for operational forecasts;
placing a “space-knowledgeable” staff member in the President’s
Office of Science and Technology Policy to coordinate policy and implement
new technologies; and restoring resources to NOAA for competitive,
peer-reviewed funding for research.

“The most significant impact to
space weather operations would be the loss of ACE monitoring capabilities,”
the report stated. NOAA is already evaluating possible replacements
for NASA’s aging ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer), cited
by the panel as the key provider of advanced-warning data for NOAA
forecasts. A million miles from Earth, ACE provides the only consistent
measurements of the solar wind, a supersonic stream of hot magnetized
plasma continuously emitted by the Sun, as it speeds by on its way
to Earth.

NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite, now in
orbit and ready to replace an earlier GOES when needed, carries new
instruments for measuring solar X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation.
Traveling through space at the speed of light, x-rays arrive in Earth’s
atmosphere eight minutes after the start of a solar storm. At 90 miles
up, they disrupt high-frequency communications critical for airline
and military operations.

Space weather disruptions to government
satellites alone are estimated at $100 million a year. One study found
solar-caused geomagnetic storms from June 2000 through December 2001
raised the price of electricity $500 million. Diverting commercial
flights to avoid radiation exposure and communications problems can
cost an airline $100,000 per flight. Radio communications blackouts
during wartime or poor timing of an astronaut’s space walk can
cost lives as well as dollars.

The Federal and Interdepartmental Committees
for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research directed the OFCM
to assess National Space Weather Program’s progress in meeting
its five stated goals of observations, research, modeling, transition
of research to operations, and education and outreach, and then take
action, through the OFCM’s interagency infrastructure, to move
the National Space Weather Program forward into the next decade.

In 2007 NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce
Department, celebrates 200 years of science and service to the nation.
Starting with the establishment of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey
in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson, much of America's scientific heritage
is rooted in NOAA.

The
agency is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety
through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related
events and information service delivery for transportation, and by
providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine
resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of
Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is
working with its federal partners and more than 60 countries to develop
a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it
observes.